RAY SWITCH VLANS:

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In this Ray article we are going to cover the brief steps required in configuring VLANs on a Ray Switch.

It goes without saying that before configuring VLANs, you need to know and Understand what a  VLAN is?

VLAN stands for Virtual LAN, which are logical grouping of devices in the same broadcast domain.

VLANs are usually configured on switches by placing some interfaces into one broadcast domain and some interfaces into another Broadcast domain. 

For the few non-technical members,  A broadcast domain is the domain in which if a broadcast is forwarded, It can reach all the devices connected to the same switch with the need to use a Layer 3 device such as a Router.. ( A good and relatable example of broadcast domain is when users are still able to access a server when there is an internet outage.) 

A broadcast domain contains all devices that can reach each other at the data link layer (OSI layer 2) by using broadcast. 

All ports on a hub or a switch are by default in the same broadcast domain.

Each VLAN acts as a subgroup of the switch ports in an Ethernet LAN.

A VLAN serves the purpose of further dividing and separating devices in the same broadcast domain by virtually dividing them using virtual demacartions called VLANs.

Without VLANs, a broadcast sent from a host would reach all devices on the network. Each device will receive and process broadcast frames, increasing the CPU overhead on each device and reducing the overall security of the network.

By placing interfaces on 2 switches into  separate VLANs, a broadcast from a host would reach only devices inside the same VLAN, since each VLAN is a separate broadcast domain. Hosts in other VLANs will not even be aware that the communication took place. 

This is shown in the picture below:

In above scenario, 4 pc hosts connected on 2 different switches are able to be isolated from each other using VLANs..

VLAN technology provides us with the following advantages: 

 Improving network performance

 Saving network resources

 Simplifying network management

 Lowering network cost

 Enhancing network security

The following steps are taken to configure VLANs on Ray Switches:

Switch>                                                                                                                                                                                            

Switch>enable

Switch#

Switch# configure terminal

Switch (Config)#

Switch (Config)#

Switch(config)#vlan 2

Switch(Config-Vlan2)#switchport interface ethernet 1/0/2-4

Switch (Config-Vlan2)#exit

Switch (config)#vlan 100

Switch (Config-Vlan100)#switchport interface ethernet 1/0/5-7

Switch (Config-Vlan100)#exit

Switch (config)#vlan 200

Switch (Config-Vlan200)#switchport interface ethernet 1/0/8-10

Switch (Config-Vlan200)#exit

Switch (config)#interface ethernet 1/0/11

Switch (Config-If-Ethernet1/0/11)#switchport mode trunk

Switch(Config-If-Ethernet1/0/11)#exit

Switch(config)#                                                                                                                                                                                

Switch(config)#exit                                                                                                                                                                          

Switch# copy running-config startup-config                                                                                                                                  

The above configuration steps will create Vlan 2, Vlan 100 and Vlan 200.

The last command (Copy running-config startup-config) saves the above vlan configuration into the switch's memory..

On completing the above steps, you would have successfully configured Vlans on a Ray Switch.

We hope this article was helpfull